Nail holder

ABSTRACT

Apparatus is disclosed for holding nails and tacks while hammering them. The apparatus includes pivoted handles for applying pressure, and movable fingers for holding the nails and through which the pressure is applied to the nails.

llnited States Patent [191 McAlister Nov. 18, 1975 1 NAIL HOLDER [76]Inventor: Edgar O. McAlister, 9810 E.

Broadway, Tucson, Ariz. 85710 [22] Filed: May 6, 1974 [21] Appl. No.:467,111

[52] US. Cl. .Q 81/419 [51] Int. Cl. B25B 7/02 [58] Field of Search81/418, 419, 5.1 R; 294/3, 294/28, DIG. 2

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 463,563 11/1891 Williamson81/419 938,376 10/1909 Friday 8l/4l8 3,040,420 6/1962 Kulp 81/418 X3,484,924 12/1969 Dahl 81/5.1 R

FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 364,026 3/1922 Germany PrimaryExaminer-James L. Jones, Jr. Attorney, Agent, or Firm-11. Gordon Shields[57] ABSTRACT Apparatus is disclosed for holding nails and tacks whilehammering them. The apparatus includes pivoted handles for applyingpressure. and movable fingers for holding the nails and through whichthe pressure is applied to the nails.

3 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures US. Patent Nov. 18,1975 SheetlofZ 3,919,903

US. Patent Nov. 18, 1975 Sheet2 0f2 3,919,903

NAIL HOLDER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention Thisinvention relates to nail and tack holders and, more particularly, tonail and tack holders including handles for applying pressure to holdthe tacks or nails while the tacks or nails are being hammered.

2. Description of the Prior Art For all practical purposes, professionalcarpenters appear to not have problems in holding nails while hammeringthe nails. However, for amateur carpenters and/or do-it-yourself weekendcarpenters, the holding of nails while hammering them can presentsubstantial problems to the nails, to the fingers holding the nails, andto the work into which the nails are to be driven. And it is known thateven professional carpenters sometimes have problems holding nails whilehammering them, especially in holding nails while nailing into knottywood. The problem with knotty wood is the tendency of nails to bend.However, if a nail is held properly and guided appropriately over aconsiderable portion of its length while being driven into work, theproblem of bending may be substantially alleviated.

The holding of tacks is another problem which involves everyone, whetherthey be professional carpenters or upholsterers or whether they beweekend or home do-it-yourself workers. One particular problem withtacks arises when they are driven into hard wood during the upholsteringor reupholstering of furniture. The inherent hardness of the woodresults in either the tack bending or the tack being driven at an angleinto the wood. Another problem virtually inherent with tacks is that thetacks are generally quite short compared to the size of a mans fingers.That is, a man with sizable fingers has virtually no room to hold thetack while it is being driven.

Prior art apparatus have been developed or have been used for theappropriate holding of nails and tacks. Commonly this is done by using apair of pliers to at least get the nail or tack started. However, pliersgenerally include serrations on the jaws which are substantiallyperpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the handles. These serrations,while handy to hold the nails originally, must at all times be parallelwith the longitudinal axis of the nails. Accordingly, as the nail isdriven into the work, the hand holding the pliers and the nail must atall times be perpendicular to the nail. This becomes a substantialproblem if the pliers is used to hold a tack, since the tack has a veryshort length. Therefore, the ordinary pliers is not satisfactory.

For many applications, pliers are simply not satisfactory for holdingnails or tacks. Moreover, many pliers have jaws which are too thick forholding most tacks'.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention comprises nail holder apparatuswhich includes pliers-like grips having a pair of side plates disposedsubstantially 90 from the longitudinal axis of the grips and movablefingers secured to the side plates.

Among the objects of the present invention are the following:

To provide new and useful nail holding apparatus;

To provide new and useful nail holding apparatus having movable fingersfor exerting a clamping pres sure on the nails;

2 To provide new and useful apparatus for holding nails at more than onelocation on each nail; and

To provide new and useful apparatus for holding nails and tacks toprevent their bending while being hammered into work.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is an isometric view of theapparatus of the present invention showing the apparatus in a workenvironment.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the apparatus of the present invention shownholding a nail.

FIG. 3 is a vertical view of the apparatus of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of a portion of the apparatus of FIGS. 1, 2,and 3.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged vertical view of a portion of the apparatus ofFIGS. l-4 illustrating certain features of the apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a view of the apparatus of FIG. 5 taken generally along line6-6 of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a vertical view of a portion of apparatus embodying thepresent invention illustrating an alternate embodiment thereof.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG. 1 is an isometric view ofapparatus embodying the present invention in a use environment. Itdiscloses nail or tack holding apparatus 10 being held by a users handle2 with a hammer 6 poised above a tack 8 by the apparatus. The apparatusincludes a pair of handles 12 and 14 secured together at a pivot pointby a pin or bolt 16. Each of the handles includes a side plate extendingupwardly substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal or long axis ofthe handles. The handle 12 thus includes a side plate 18 extendingupwardly distally from the pivot point at the pin or bolt 16, and thehandle 14 includes a side plate 20 extending upwardly, againsubstantially perpendicular to the longitudinal or long axis of thehandle, and distally from the pivot point of the handles at the bolt 16.The side plates 18 and 20 comprise, or correspond to, jaws of pliers inthat inwardly directed pressure on the handles 12 and 14 cause the sideplates or jaws to move together or towards each other with some degreeof force.

Each of the side plates 18 and 20 carries a pair of fingers, withfingers 22 and 24 extending outwardly from the side plate 18, andfingers 26 and 28 being carried by, and thus secured to, side plate 20.The fingers extend outwardly from the side plate, and thus away from thehandles 12 and 14. The fingers are movably secured to the side plates bya pair of rivets. The fingers are disposed in a superimposed positionwith respect to each other on each side plate, and each pair on one sideplate is substantially parallel to the pair on the other side plate.Each finger is secured by a single rivet, which allows each finger tomove independently of the other fingers. When a pair of fingers, or onefinger from each side plate, is acting together to hold a nail or atack, the fingers comprising the pair will generally move together.

The fingers 22, 24, and 26, 28 are disposed on the inside of therespective side plates 18 and 20, and accordingly are in contact witheach other when an inwardly directed force, such as produced by a humanhand, is placed on the handles 12 and 14. The fingers are thus able tograsp and hold tacks and nails regardless of the size or diameter of thetacks or nails. The pressure required to be exerted by a user of theapparatus is not great since no clamping pressure is required. Rather,pressure sufficient only to hold the nail or tack in place is required.

As shown in FIG. 1, the hand 2, or the plane of the hand, of the user isdisposed generally parallel to the work, or to the plane of the work,into which the tack 8 is to be driven; That is, the tack is held by theapparatus 10 substantially perpendicular to the hand 2 of the user, andto the longitudinal axis of the respective handles l2 and 14. Or, todescribe it in another way, a plane defined by the handles 12 and 14,which is generally parallel to the hand 2, is perpendicular to theplates 18 and and to the longitudinal axis of the tack 8, or of a nail,if substituted for the tack. Thus the apparatus may be disposed veryclose to the work into which a nail or tack is to be driven withoutinterference by the hand of the user. Accordingly, the apparatus 10 maybe held quite close, and substantially parallel, to any work withoutinterference due to the proximity of the hand and of the apparatus 10,to the work itself. Moreover, as also illustrated in FIG. 1, the hand 2is a safe distance away from the hammer 6 which is shown disposed abovethe head of tack 8. Thus the possibility or probability of injury to thehand by a misdirected blow from a hammer is extremely remote. Even ifthe hammer were to miss the tack or nail, or to glance off the head of atack or nail, there would be little possibility or likelihood of injuryto the hand since such misdirected blow would impinge upon the fingersof the apparatus, which are movably secured to the side plates. Thefingers, thus movable, would absorb any blow and would prevent a majorportion of the force of the blow from being transmitted through theapparatus 10 to the fingers or the hand of the user.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the apparatus of FIG. 1, illustrating theholding of a nail 9 by the apparatus 10. The handles 12 and 14 aredisposed substantially parallel to each other, and the side plates 18and 20 extend upwardly generally perpendicular to the handles, or to -aplane connecting the handles. Fingers 22 and 24 extend outwardly fromthe side plate 18, and are secured to the side plate by a pair of rivets23 and 25, respectively. The finger 22 is disposed above the finger 24,and both are movable with respect to the side plate 18.

The side plates are extensions of the handles, and the respectivehandles and side plates are secured together about a pivot point definedby bolt 16 extending through and connecting both of the handles. As aninwardly directed force is applied to squeeze the two handles 12 and 14together, the force is transmitted through the pivot point to the sideplates and to the respective fingers extending from the side plates.This results in a squeezing action against nail 9. With the fingers 22and 24 movable on side plate 18, and their parallel counterpart fingerssimilarly movable on side plate 20, as the nail 9 is driven into itsdesignated work, the fingers will pivot or move on the side plates so asto maintain a grip on the nail. Thus, the fingers grip the nail, but thenail is also movable within the fingers and the fingers are mbvable onthe sideplat es. In this manner, the user may maintain a constantorientation of the apparatus 10 with respect to the work, but the nail,gripped by the fingers of the apparatus 10, will move with respect tothe fingers, and the apparatus and the fingers may also move withrespect to the side plates and the handles.

4 When a nail, such as nail 9 or a tack 8 (see FIG. 1) is initially heldor gripped by the fingers, the fingers on each side plate willpreferably be spread apart from each other so as to allow the nail ortack to be held in two places by the fingers. This type of holdingarrangement gives more stability to the nail or tack and helps toprevent the possibility or likelihood of the nail or tack being bentupon initial nailing or pounding from a hammer.

If desired, upper finger 22 may include a bend 30 therein. The purposeof the bend is simply to allow more flexibility in the holding of thenail or pin by the fingers. With a bend in the upper fingers, such asbend 30 in upper finger 22, as the nail or tack is pounded and driveninto its designated work, the outer portions of the upper fingers willbe more nearly parallel to the lower fingers as the nail is driven intoits respective work and as the fingers move closer together.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, upper finger 22 includes an outer portion 31extending relatively upwardly from bend 30. The term upwardly is used todenote the relative direction of the outer portion of the finger 22 withrespect to inner portion 35 of the finger 22 between the pivot point ofthe finger about rivet 23 and the bend 30. As also illustrated in FIG.2, the outer portion 31 of the upper finger 22 is disposed generallyparallel to lower finger 24, when the two fingers are disposed adjacenteach other.

FIG. 3 is a vertical view of the apparatus 10 of FIGS. 1 and 2. WhileFIG. 2 is a side view of the apparatus of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a verticalview of the apparatus ofFIG. 2 with the nail 9 held between the fingersof the apparatus. When a squeezing force is applied to the handles 12and 14 the force is transmitted to the side plates 18 and 20, whichfunction substantially like jaws of pliers. The side plates in turntransmit the force through their fingers, of which only upper fingers 22and 26 are shown in the vertical view of FIG. 3. The handles 12 and 14are secured together about a pivot point by a bolt 16. The handles pivotabout the bolt. The fingers 22 and 26 are secured to the side plates 18and 20, respectively, by rivets 23 and 27. The rivets do not clamp thefingers tightly to the side plates, and the fingers are accordinglymovable about the rivets. Since the fingers are movable with respect tothe side plates, as the nail 9 is driven into its designated work, thefingers move downwardly with the nail and they also move relative to thenail to maintain a grip on the nail and yet to allow the nail to movedownwardly into the work in a straight line, or as desired by the userof the apparatus.

The upper fingers 22 and 26 each include a bend 30 and 32, respectively,which separates the outer portions 31 and 33 of the fingers,respectively, from inner portions 35 and 37, respectively.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged 'view of a portion of the apparatus 10illustrating the sequential movement of the fingers as the nail 9 isdriven into work. In the upper position,'nail 9a is shown disposed onwork 4 and is gripped by fingers 22 and 24. Note that the fingers arespread apart so as to grip the nail 9a in two locations, the upperlocation being adjacent the head of the nail, and the lower locationbeing adjacent the work 4. Accordingly, the apparatus 10 is holding thenail 9a substantially securely to prevent the nail from moving and alsoto prevent the nail from bending in the course of its downward movement.As the nail is driven downward to the position shown in phantom and asdesignated by reference numeral 9b, the fingers 22 and 24 pivot abouttheir respective rivets 23 and 25 on side plate 18. There is, of course,a corresponding pivoting of fingers 26 and 28, not shown in FIG. 4. Thefingers'26 and 28 are substantially parallel to the fingers22 and 24. Ifdesired, the fingers 26 and 28 could be disposed other than par allel tothe fingers 22 and 24. As the nail 9 is driven into the work 4, thefingers move downwardly with the nail, and also move relative to thenail to allow the nail to maintain its downward direction and at thesame time to allow the handles and side plates of the apparatus 10 tomaintain a constant orientation relative to the work 4. Thus, thefingers move with respect to both the nail and to the side plates andhandle.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged plan view of a portion of the apparatus l0,illustrating the use of leaf-type springs disposed between the fingersand the side plates to maintain a spring bias between the fingers andthe side plates. The spring bias is used to prevent the fingers fromflopping or moving too freely, but yet allows them to move as requiredby either the user of the apparatus or by the motion of the nail or tackto which they are applied.

The jaws 18 and 20 are shown, with upper fingers 22 and 26 securedthereto by a pair of rivets 23 and 27, respectively. The fingers 22 and26 are divided into outer and inner portions 31, 35, and 33, 37,respectively, by the bends 30 and 32. The fingers 22 and 26 are disposedbetween the side plates 18 and 20 by the rivets 23 and 27. A leaf spring40 is disposed between the side plate 18 and the finger 22, and anotherleaf spring 42 is disposed between the side plate 20 and the finger 26.The springs exert a bias between the side plates and the fingers to biasthe fingers inwardly, towards each other, and away from the side plates.The rivets extend through the springs and secure both the springs andthe fingers to the side plates.

FIG. 6 is a view of the apparatus of FlG. 5 taken generally along line66 of FIG. 5. The view comprises a front sectional view of the apparatusof FIG. 5 illustrating the relationship between the figures of theapparatus 10 and the springs 40 and 42 used to bias the springs. FIG. 6discloses the side plates 18 and 20 with the fingers 22, 24, and 26, 28shown in partial section in accordance with line 66 of FIG. 5.

Fingers 22 and 24 are secured to side plate 18 by rivets 23 and 25,respectively. Fingers 26 and 28 are secured by rivets 27 and 29,respectively, to side plate 20. A single spring 40 is disposed betweenside plate 18 and the fingers 22 and 24. The spring, typically of theleaf spring type, is held in place between the side plate and thefingers by the rivets 23 and which also secure the fingers to the sideplates. Similarly, a single leaf-type spring 42 is disposed between sideplate 20 and the fingers 26 and 28 and is held in such position by therivets 27 and 29. It has been stated previously that the springs exert abias between the side plates and the fingers to assist the fingers inmaintaining whatever orientation they are placed in. The springs do notexert such a strong bias as to prevent the fingers from moving; neitherdo they present a problem to the user of the nail holding apparatus. Thefingers are thus able to move freely and yet the springs exertsufficient bias to allow .the fingers to maintain whatever orientationis desired by the user of the apparatus. It is obvious that other typesof springs may be used in place of the two leaf springs. For example,individual springs could be used with each finger and such springs couldbe of any appropriate design.

FIG. 7 is a vertical view of a portion of apparatus embodying thepresent invention which illustrates an alternate embodiment. Thealternate embodiment includes divergenttips on the fingers.

FIG. 7 discloses nail holding apparatus which includes a pair of sideplates or jaws 118 and 120, each of which is an extension of a pair ofhandles secured together about a pivot point, substantially the same asapparatus 10, illustrated above in conjunction with FIGS. 1-6. The sideplates 118 and 120 each carry a pair of fingers, of which only upperfingers 122 and 126 are shown in FIG. 7. Upper finger 122 is secured toside plate 118 by a rivet 123. A spring 140 is disposed between thefinger and the side plate and is held in position by the rivet 123.Upper finger 126 is secured to side plate 120 by a rivet 127, and aspring 142 is disposed between the side plate and the finger. Bothfingers 122 and 126 are disposed on the inside of their respective sideplates 118 and 120.

Finger 122 includes an inner portion 124 through which rivet 123 extendsand an outer portion 125. The inner and outer portions are separated orare defined by a bend 130. Similarly, finger 126 includes an innerportion 128 and an outer portion 129 separated or defined by a bend 131.The outer portions and 129 are substantially the same as the outerportions 31 and 33 as discussed above in conjunction with the apparatus10. That is, the outer portions 125 and 129 extend upwardly from theirrespective bends 130 and 131 for the purposes above enumerated.

The outer portions 125 and 129 of the fingers include divergent tips 134and 136, respectively. The divergent tips 134 and 136 extend away fromthe longitudinal axis of the fingers 122 and 126, but, if desired, maycontinue the upward orientation of the outer portions 125 and 129 towhich they are secured. The purpose of the divergent portions 134 and136 is to allow a user of the apparatus 100 to more easily orient a nailor a tack between the fingers. The divergent portions or tips thus serveas guides or funnels into which the nails or tacks may be urged forfinal displacement between the fingers for holding. If desired, thedivergent tips may be oriented in a different angle with respect to theupwardly extending orientation of the outer portions 125 and 129. Thatis, if desired, there may be a double bend in each finger rather thanthe single bend along the axis of the fingers in addition to thedivergent orientation of the outer tip of each finger.

While only the upper fingers 120 and 126 of the nail holding apparatus100 are shown in the vertical view of FIG. 7, the lower fingers alsopreferably include the diverging tips substantially parallel to thediverging tips 134 and 136. However, the lower fingers, similar to thelower fingers of the embodiment of FIGS. l-6, do not include a bend butare substantially straight axially.

While the principles of the invention have been made clear inillustrative embodiments, there will be immediately obvious to thoseskilled in the art many modifications of structure, arrangement,proportions, the elements, materials, and components used in thepractice of the invention, and otherwise, which are particularly adaptedfor specific environments and operative requirements without departingfrom those principles. The appended claims are intended to cover andembrace any and all such modifications, within the limits only of thetrue spirit and scope of the invention. This specification and theappended claims have been prepared in accordance with the applicablepatent laws 8 relative to the other fingers, for holding a membertherebetween in response to an inwardly directed force on the handles.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the finger means include springmeans to bias the finger means with respect to the side plates.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the finger means include divergenttips for guiding the members held by the finger means.

1. Holding apparatus, comprising in combination: a first handle having afirst side plate secured thereto; a second handle having a second sideplate secured thereto, said first and second handles secured togetherand movable relative to each other; finger means, comprising a pluralityof fingers pivotally secured to the first and to the second side platesand each finger movable on the side plates relative to the otherfingers, for holding a member therebetween in response to an inwardlydirected force on the handles.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1 in which thefinger means include spring means to bias the finger means with respectto the side plates.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the fingermeans include divergent tips for guiding the members held by the fingermeans.